The Asian Sports Village

The Asian Sports Village

Geography will not remain the same over years, just like history keeps changing by times. The root cause of these changes is mainly because of human activities. As a child who group up in the Asian Sports Village, an area developed because of the 11th Asian Sports Game in Beijing, China, I witnessed the huge changes of the Asian Sports Village over years. These huge changes embody multiple elements, especially in terms of politics, economics, and environment.

To me, change means an alternation in direction, appearance, and idea. It is a change because some thing becomes so different and evident that people can immediately notice it. The Asian Sports Village develops similar to a human being, except it has much longer life span. Just like human grows from a little baby who can not even walk to a adult who knows what he or she wants to do, The Asian Sports Village changes so many times in so many aspects that I could not remember what it used to look like. This area used to be farm field owned by farmers. During 1980s, the government decides to exploit this area because of the 11th Asian Sports Game, which took place in September 22nd, 1990. Rapidly, within a decade, The Asian Sports Village was constructed. According to Macroeconomic Forum, the overall construction area was more than 6 million square feet; permanent resident population exceeded 500 thousands, while the floating population was over 300 thousands. During the 1990s, The Asian Sports Village became a vital symbol of Beijing, the capital of China.

What happens next to the ASV is a great example to illustrate environment and society, which explains the impact of human activity on environment. Because of ASV’s rocket developing speed, it encounters expanding difficulties as time pass by.

 Even though it became the symbol of Beijing, it did not have a characteristic that distinguishes itself from other Central Business District. Gradually, ASV’s economic dies as investors started focusing in other CBD areas. Nevertheless, ASV got a second change because of the Beijing Olympic Games. Once again, the government decided to hold The Olympic Games in ASV because it held the Asian Sports Game in 1990. The Asian Sports Village had a revival beginning in 2003 as government starts constructing Olympic Sports auditorium such as the Bird Nest, Water Cube, etc. Moreover, the government started building beautiful Olympic parks in this area. Because of the emphasis in natural environment and human activity, people started buying houses in the ASV, investing money in building shopping centers, developing more resident districts nearby, opening restaurants and hotels. Gradually, ASV was in a perfect shape. It became the ideal place for people to live in because it possessed huge Olympic parks, advanced medical center, multiple shopping center, excellent schools ranging from kindergarten to high schools, etc. So evidently, what human does to ASV has a huge impact in forming ASV’s environment.